He found that the Internet was seen as a risk by children, mainly through chat rooms, following incidents of youngsters being "groomed" by paedophiles who go on to meet and abuse them.

The report said: "Most were very aware, and wary, of the dangers that could come from entering chatrooms, and would be happy for them to be closed.

"Many thought their schools were good at monitoring and protecting their pupils from Internet risks.

"There was a worry that Internet risks are greater for younger children who might be more likely to come across something or someone dangerous by accident, and to be less likely to spot risks and block unwanted contacts."

Fear of being kidnapped

Dr Morgan also found that a very common worry was the fear of being kidnapped or abducted.

"Young people were clear that although the risk of abduction was low for many children, the possibility of it happening was a high level worry for them.

"They felt you could worry a lot about something serious, even if it was not very likely to happen," the report noted.

The study found that coverage of the Soham tragedy and murderer Ian Huntley's court case had

made children very aware of abduction as an issue.

"The phrase 'like Holly and Jessica' was used over and over again in our discussions of dangers for children," the report said.

Call for police checks

One of the most important issues to children was making sure that police checks were carried out properly on all people who worked with or around children.

Among the suggestions made by children to improve their safety were extra visits by social services to check children's homes and other areas where youngsters were cared for.

They also called for greater security and surveillance around places where young people went, as well as the closing down of all Internet chat rooms.

To tackle bullying, the youngsters said they wanted persistent bullies to be expelled from schools.

The CSCI today also published its three-year improvement plan for social care services in England.

It pledged to put the people who use social care at the centre of its work to push forward improvement in the quality of all its services.